Meeting the Pelican

15th September 2007

I got the chance to go down to Weymouth the other weekend to see the TS Pelican of London and got invited to spend a few days on board. I thought she’d just be in harbour and I’d be helping with the last bits of the fit, but then they said she was going out for a shakedown voyage and would I like to come along? Silly question! I wasn’t able to do the whole week because of work so I got “dropped off” at Yarmouth.

I’m in love with 226 tonnes of metal and rope! She is absolutely gorgeous, She has three decks and three masts, the rig is a new design using square sails on the main mast and triangular sails on the foremast, an idea taken from old lateen rigged arabic vessels, and she has a spanker and topsail mizzen on the mizzen mast at the back, the squares brace round really close, much further round than most other tall ships, which gives her a huge advantage when sailing into the wind, she can get much closer than any other ship in her class, she sails like a dream, heels nicely and doesn’t roll, thank god!

I spent the the three days I had on her throwing myself into life on board, my first evening was spent on galley duty so I didn’t get to play with the rig, but made up for that over the next couple of days, I was up and down the rigging like a monkey!! I think I made a favourable impression with the crew, when it was time for me to leave they were all saying I should stay, but I’d already pushed my time on board to the limit and had to be in work that evening, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m currently desparately saving to get onto the TA in march and therefore need my full bonus (which is based on attendance, I lose £200 for every unauthorised days absence) I’d have stayed, but 4 nights sailing the south coast compared to three months on board in the caribbean isn’t too difficult a decision to make really!

What the trip has done for me is to make me triply determined to do this, being back on a Tall Ship was like coming back to a long lost family, a little unsure of things at first but things clicked back into place like an old familiar jigsaw: clews, bunts and leaches had me confused at first but then something about corners, bottoms and …sides came flooding back and I was able to explain it to the other voyage crew, gasket ties and sail stowing, that little flick of the wrist you make when coiling a rope to make it sit nicely on top of the other coils with out twisting. By the end of the second day I had a couple of blisters developing, aching limbs and my skin was salty and tight from the sea air, it felt good.

Click here to see photos from this trip